File:General biography; or, Lives, critical and historical, of the most eminent persons of all ages, countries, conditions, and professions, arranged according to alphabetical order (1818) (14779294011).jpg

Identifier: generalbiographyv4pt1aiki (find matches)
Title: General biography; or, Lives, critical and historical, of the most eminent persons of all ages, countries, conditions, and professions, arranged according to alphabetical order
Year: 1818 (1810s)
Authors: Aikin, John, 1747-1822 Enfield, William, 1741-1797
Subjects: Biography
Publisher: London : Smeeton
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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at severity of personal discipline. Fran-cis practised to an extreme the abstinence andmortifications which he prescribed to his fol-lowers ; on no occasion taking any wine, meat,fish, or milk; contenting himself with breadand water; never tasting food till after sunset;going barefoot; sleeping on the floor of hiscell, without any other pillow than a stone or ablock of wood ; and wearing a rough hair-clothnext to his skin, under a coarse and mean upperdrefs. And because he thus uiuiaturally cuthimself off from partaking in the innocent en-joyments of life, and plagued and tortured him-self, as though the God whom he wished toconciliate had been a malignant and hatefuldemon, delighting in the misery of men, insteadof the kind and indulgent father of his crea-tures ; so great was the ignorance and supersti-tion of the times, that he acquired the highestcharacter for piety and virtue by these austeri-ties. His fame soon spread over Europe, indifferent parts of which many monasteries were
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L/Tmi&eJ^Franc$/ct.e/-yh£ Ave nomine cvrt/u-trutfi a Stx£trIFanrwi-:i,ji:/£//£t£ i .ttagel. t^rc go. F R A ( £05 ) F R A erected for friars of his order. So high wasthe opinion entertained of his fanctity, and ofthe prevalence of his intercessions with Heaven,that when Lewis XI. of France was attackedby a dangerous distemper, he sent for Francisout of Calabria, hoping to obtain a cure by vir-tue of his prayers. To this journey he wasmuch disinclined, and refused to undertake it,until commanded to do so by the pope. Hewas received by Lewis with the greatest ho-nour, and had apartments assigned to him, andsome of his religious who accompanied himin die palace of Plessis-les-Tours, where theking then resided. After the death of thatprince, his successor Charles VIII. built a con-vent for Francis and his monks in the park be-longing to that palace. In this convent Francisdied, in 1507, at the advanced age of ninety-one years. Commines, in his Memoirs,while he speaks in high term

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